Facts on SB5
Myth : "Collective bargaining
for public employees is not
working, is a drain on the state's
budget and should be
abolished."
FACTS:
• Collective bargaining has been working in the state of Ohio. 3 of
the 4 years leading up to Ohio’s 1983 collective bargaining law for public
employees, Ohio led the nation in public employee labor strikes—
employees felt they had no other voice other than to go on strike. Before
the 1983 collective bargaining law there were an average of 60 strikes a
year by public workers, but in 2010 there were zero strikes by public
workers in the state of Ohio.
• Collective bargaining has not caused Ohio's deficit. In fact, Budget
deficits for states without collective bargaining for public employees are
actually higher on average than the budget deficits of states with
collective bargaining (Policy Matters Ohio).
• Ohio Republican State Senator Tim Grendell stated that Senate Bill
5 was unconstitutional before the Ohio Senate on March 30,
2011 based on the 1989 Ohio Supreme Court case City of Rocky
River v. State Employment Relations Board.

Myth : “The salaries and FACTS:

benefits of public employees are • State of Ohio public employee payroll is only 9% of the state budget.
bankrupting the state.” • Even if every state public employee were laid off, it would not come close
to balancing the state budget.

Myth : “Private sector workers FACTS:

in the state have faced cutbacks, • State of Ohio employees have saved $250 million dollars in their current
while public workers haven’t contract and have agreed to pay cuts, furloughs and paying more for
sacrificed anything.” health care in response to changing economic conditions.
• Teachers, police officers and firefighters have saved local governments
millions across the state by agreeing to pay freezes and paying more for
health care.

Myth : “Salaries and benefits FACTS:

paid to public employees are way • On average, including salary and benefits, public employees make 6.8%
out of line compared to private less than their private sector counterparts (Economic Policy Institute,
sector workers.” Rutgers University)
• Over half of state and local public employees have a college degree, while
fewer than 30 percent of private sector workers do.
• Educators’ salaries start at $30,000 a year while those in professions with
similar education—architects, engineers and accountants—start at around
$50,000 a year, mid-career earnings for architects, engineers and
accountants are around $70,000, mid-career earnings for educators are
around $50,000 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.moneywatch.com)

Myth : “It isn’t fair that FACTS:

taxpayers pay for teachers’ • Teachers earn compensation in two forms: cash salaries and deferred
retirement.” salaries. The cash salary is their paycheck. 10% of each paycheck is
deducted and contributed to their retirement. An amount equal to 14% of

 
  
the cash salary is contributed on behalf of the employee as deferred
salary to their retirement. Teachers’ accepted deferred salaries in lieu of
cash salary increases. (tax.com, Rick Ungar of Forbes magazine)

Myth : “We should pay FACTS:

teachers based on merit because • Requiring merit pay for teachers with 50% of criteria for evaluation based
this will encourage teachers to on standardized test scores will cause teachers to teach to the test and
work harder and perform better.” narrow the curriculum. A reduction in creative and innovative classrooms
will occur, ultimately causing decreased student motivation and
engagement in learning.
• Requiring administrators to evaluate every teacher for at least 30 minutes
twice every year will increase administrative costs and mean that more
money is spent on administrative costs instead of less.
• Value-added formulas for teacher performance based on standardized
test are not statistically valid and reliable. (Economic Policy Institute, New
York Times, National Education Policy Center)
• Students often receive instruction from multiple teachers, which makes it
difficult, if not impossible, to determine which teacher is responsible for
student achievement.
• Merit pay systems for teachers have been tried in New York City,
Chicago, Washington D.C. and Nashville where studies have shown that
they did not increase student achievement (Mathematica Policy Research,
Economic Policy Institute, National Educational Policy Center)
• Vanderbilt University and the RAND Corporation concluded that
“rewarding teachers with bonus pay, in the absence of any other support
programs, does not raise student test scores.”
• According to University of Washington economist Dan Goldhaber, about
60% of student achievement is attributable to non-school factors, such as
family income and poverty
• Research has shown that collaboration among teachers improves the
quality of instruction, but merit-pay systems based on standardized test
scores for the students of individual teachers creates incentives opposed
to collaboration and cooperation
• Merit pay based on standardized tests punishes teachers for working with
students who have disabilities or are disadvantaged

Myth : “Charter schools FACTS:

outperform traditional public
schools.”
• According to a 2009 Stanford University study, only 17% of charter
schools perform better than public schools while 37% of charter schools
perform worse than public schools
• According to an analysis of the 2006 Ohio state report cards, 1 in 2
charter schools were either in academic emergency or academic watch,
while only 1 in 11 traditional public school buildings were in academic
emergency or academic watch
• 3 out of 4 public schools are rated excellent or effective, while only 1 in 6
charter schools are rated excellent or effective.
• There are twice as many failing charter schools as successful ones

 
  
Myth : “Charter Schools are FACTS:
less expensive and more efficient • According to the Ohio Dept. of Education, in Franklin County the average
than traditional public schools public school receives $3,957.94 per student in state funding, while the
because they operate under free average charter school receives $9,416.81 per student
market principles.” • In 2010, Ohio charter schools received over $184.4 million in federal
funding in addition to state funding

Myth : “Teachers only work 9 REALITY:

months a year and have the
summers off”
• Teachers’ contracts are typically only for 8 hours a day for about 9 and a
half months, while in reality the daily workload of teachers requires at
least an hour or two each night and at least an hour or two on the
weekends
• These hours conservatively mean 12 extra hours a week beyond the 40
hour contractual work week that teachers’ salaries are based upon—this
adds up to 48 hours of additional work per month, 438 hours extra per 9
and a half months or about 11 to 12 weeks of extra work per year. These
figures put teachers on a full year’s work schedule and do not include the
20 to 40 hours devoted to post-graduate university coursework each year
required to upgrade professional licensure.
Teachers’ Contractual Responsibilities That Require Work Beyond
the Daily Contact Hours with Students:
• Assessing and providing feedback on each student’s homework and daily
assignments
• Developing curriculum with unit plans and creating daily lesson plans
• Maintaining class website or homework page
• Providing assignments and instruction for absent students
• Monitoring and responding to student contributions to online discussions,
Moodle and/or Wikis
• Completing interim reports and report cards for each student 4 times a
year
• Collaborating with team teachers and co-teachers on shared students’
lessons and progress
• Collaborating with Intervention Specialists on goals and progress of
Individualized Education Plans for students mainstreamed into regular
classrooms
• Building and district committee meetings including curriculum writing,
department meetings, technology committees, Professional Learning
Community meetings and 21st Century Learning committees.
• Technology training and professional development
• Writing student recommendations for college applications, scholarships
and extracurricular opportunities
• Communicating with parents via phone conferences and emails
• Supervising student clubs and activities after school
• Monitoring hallways and playground duties
• Attending extracurricular school activities in the evening, including
concerts, theatrical performances, athletic competitions and academic
challenges

 
  
Sources:

“Don't join the government to get rich,” The Economist online, February 21, 2011.

“The Wisconsin Lie Exposed – Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions,” Rick Ungar, Forbes,

February 25, 2011.

“Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who 'Contributes' to Public Workers' Pensions?” David Cay Johnston, www.tax.com,

February 24, 2011.

“Why States Shouldn’t Adopt Defined-Contribution Pensions,” Felix Salmon, Reuters, March 1, 2011.

“A Bad Deal for Taxpayers,” Teresa Ghilarducci, The New York Times, February 28, 2011.

“The Myth of Charter Schools,” Diane Ravitch, The New York Review of Books, January 13, 2011.

“Multiple Choice: Charter School Performance in 16 States,” Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO),

Stanford University, June 2009.

“An Evaluation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in Chicago: Year Two Impact Report,” Steven Glazerman and

Allison Seifullah, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., May 17, 2010.

“The Children Must Play: What the United States could learn from Finland about education reform,” Samuel E. Abrams,

The New Republic, January 28, 2011.

“Evaluating New York Teachers, Perhaps the Numbers Do Lie,” Michael Winerip, The New York Times, March 6, 2011.

“Neither Fair Nor Accurate • Research-Based Reasons Why High-Stakes Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers,”

Wayne Au, Rethinking Schools, Winter 2010.

“Teacher bonuses not linked to better student performance, study finds,” Nick Anderson, Washington Post, September

21, 2010.

“Getting Teacher Assessment Right: What Policymakers Can Learn From Research,” Patricia H. Hinchey, National

Education Policy Center, December 7, 2010.

“Problems With the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers,” Eva L. Baker et al., Economic Policy Institute,

Briefing Paper #278, August 27, 2010.

“Review of Waiting for Superman,” Davis Guggenheim, National Education Policy Center, January 24, 2011.

“What the U.S. Can Learn From the World’s Most Successful Education Reform Efforts,” Steven L. Paine and Andreas

Schleicher, McGraw-Hill Research Foundation.

Created by the Upper Arlington Education Association, April 2011.